Bearpaw Season - Fall 2013

[Killmore]

Is one eye willy one of the bucks that hung out by the driveway? I wanted to thank you and Nick for a good time, It felt good to see so many bucks in one day and also breaking my dry spell. Meeting Matt and Shannon was also a special treat, very nice people. And bearpaw falling  asleep at the dinner table was PRICELESS    Mike

[Whitpirate]

Always enjoy the pictures and stories of your client hunts Dale.

[bearpaw]

Is one eye willy one of the bucks that hung out by the driveway? I wanted to thank you and Nick for a good time, It felt good to see so many bucks in one day and also breaking my dry spell. Meeting Matt and Shannon was also a special treat, very nice people. And bearpaw falling  asleep at the dinner table was PRICELESS    Mike

He was down by the highway closer to town and then moved up by the big alfalfa field up on top near where you got your buck.

I was so tired that night, I slept like a baby when I finally made it to bed. 

It was good seeing you and the Mrs again, you need to bring her back for a buck someday. 

[bearpaw]

Always enjoy the pictures and stories of your client hunts Dale.

  Thanks, I appreciate the comment.

Just sitting on my behind today in a motel in Billings. My next hunter is shooting a buffalo on Thanksgiving morning and then we are going deer hunting with him. Will miss thanksgiving with my family but will hopefully get some more photos and tales to share. Then I have a doe hunter and then then I head to Idaho for cougar hunting.

Can't wait to run the hounds again. 

[bearpaw]

Buffalo Down...
Thanksgiving Day Buffalo, congrats to Frazier on his first hunt ever.

[bearpaw]

Today Frazier hunted whitetails, we passed numerous bucks and bagged a couple porcupines. We finally got onto some bigger bucks this evening, unfortunately Frazier missed his first buck, found two other shooter bucks tonight, but Frazier has vision problems and couldn't get on the bucks in time. He has to head home tomorrow so we'll probably shoot the first buck we see rather than passing bucks most of the day.

[Coasthunterjay]

Bearpaw you and your outfitters/guides have done a good job. I know how hard it is to hunt/scout everyday of every pre-season, season, and post-season to give your every last moment to getting all your customers a rememberable animal and adventure. Good on you! I enjoy the pics of all your happy looking customers.

[bearpaw]

Thanks Coasthunterjay 

Last Day In Montana
Unfortunately Frazier missed three 4x4 bucks today, one whitetail and two mule bucks. But we had a great time, I worked with him to try and improve his shooting, and I think he'll be back soon for another hunt.

I'm off to Idaho for cougar hunting.  

[bearpaw]

We caught the first lion of the season a few days ago. The cat had killed a beaver and drug it a short distance across the road, ate most of it, we found it and turned the dogs loose, it was a quick chase. It was a small female so we took photos and left it in the tree.

[bearpaw]

Day Before Yesterday
We found another set of tom tracks a couple days old. We searched all over the area and found out there was a tom and a female hunting together and they had made tracks all over the area. After a coupe hours we finally found where they had made a deer kill, saw where they chased it down and drug it a short distance to devour it.

That's where we took the dogs and turned them loose at the kill only a short distance from an old logging road. The dogs could smell cats everywhere, the cats had made tracks all over the place. We found beds where the cats had layed but it appeared the tom had left a day earlier and the female was the most recent track. We found the female track leaving the area and the dogs could have run her, but we didn't want to waste time with that and opted to give that up and try to find where the tom had gone.

Here's a photo of what is left of the deer kill after only a couple days of feeding by two cats. Notice how almost everything is eaten, even the skin is devoured and most bones are chewed up and consumed. All that is left is hair, part of the head and part of one front leg that the female was probably planning on consuming.

We didn't find the tom that day so we planned to look for him again the next day.

[bearpaw]

We found another deer kill, Brian back tracked in the 1 inch of freshly fallen snow and found where a trio of coyotes had stalked this deer in it's bed, the full grown mule deer doe ran a short distance but the trio of coyotes killed her and had devoured her overnight. When Brian first found the kill before daylight no birds had been on the kill only coyotes.

The coyotes leave most of the bone, they do not have the jaw strength to eat most of the bones like a cougar does. I thought I took a photo but can't find it, I will post it if I find it.

[bearpaw]

Yesterday
Brian went back looking for the tom from the day before. I headed for another area where I had seen an old tom track on the first day of the hunt.

I cut the tracks of a nice looking tom on my way up the mountain, could be the same cat I was looking for. We started the track at daylight, it was very cold and the dogs were moving it really slow. The guys were walking the track with the dogs, they had gone a half mile or so and suddenly the dogs blew up right in front of them, a cougar went running out of a hole in the rocks right past them and the dogs took off after it.

The cougar headed for a pile of rocks trying to lose the dogs, then it ran for a nearby canyon with the dogs in hot pursuit and the guys right behind the dogs going as fast as they could go. The cat either bayed or treed for a few minutes but before anyone could get there it took off again with the dogs right behind. The dogs stopped the cat again up on a steep hillside but before we could get there it jumped again and headed over the mountain. We headed up over the top of the ridge to find the cat had treed again but before we could get there it jumped again and headed down the canyon on the other side.

The hunter (Kevin) continued with Brian and I and headed back to get the truck to drive it closer in the bottom of the canyon where the cat was headed. About halfway down the canyon the cat treed again and the guys made to the tree, the cat was nervous as Brian tried to move around and identify if it was a male or female. Suddenly the cat jumped again and headed straight down the canyon toward where I was parking.

Brian told me over the radio it sounded like it treed again several hundred yards farther down the canyon, I said if you get to the tree don't wait for me, just shoot the cat, I'm sure it's a tom cause the tracks were so big and he was double stepping. As I was preparing to leave the truck I could hear the dogs barking a half mile up the canyon, just as I started up the canyon I heard the shot. I hurried there in time for the photo session.

The guys said as soon as they got to the tree the cat started getting nervous again, while Brian grabbed the best dogs Nick snapped a couple photos, and Kevin quickly shot the cat as it was preparing to jump again. As luck would have it the cat was actually a female, a bit of a disappointment since we try to take only toms on our hunts, but it was an exciting hunt, the hunter was thrilled, and it was great for the young dogs, not so bad after all.

Apparently this female was resting in the rocks right near where the tom had walked through the night before, when the dogs got too close it spooked the cat out of the rocks and we think that's how we ended up with a different cat than we had started chasing.

We took photos and some video, then made our way to the truck and headed off the mountain.

[bearpaw]

Today
I had two more hunters who were flying in from Denmark last night but their flight from Paris to Salt Lake was changed and they were forced to land in Atlanta and spend the night.

It had snowed a skiff and we wanted to hunt so Nick (one of my guides) who also wanted to take a cat this season was able to hunt again today. Brian headed back to look for the tom that had killed the deer and I headed back to find the tom that had gotten crossed up with the female we had accidentally shot yesterday. It turned out to be an exciting day but I will have to finish the story later, while I have been writing I fell asleep at the computer and now it's nearly time to go hunting again.   

I need to catch a little more sleep and go hunting, I'll finish tomorrow after we get back from hunting.

[CementFinisher]

awesome dale 

[denali]

way to go Brian    wish we could do it here